A Self Portrait

From the time I was eight, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I really didn't know what it meant to be an artist, but I'd read and heard about artists and I wanted to emulate them. In high school I began working as an artist. I was impressed with van Gogh's paintings and used his technique as a model for my own work.

After high school I went to the American Artists School and the Art Students League in New York City. The second World War interrupted my schooling; I was drafted into the 104th infantry division of the army as a forward observer and fire directions center operator in the field artillery. I had a good time in the army and was able to paint and draw.

After the war, I went to the Otis Art Institute in L.A. In 1952, I won a competition from the ACA Gallery in New York, the prize of which was a one-man show. My wife and I decided to go to Mexico where I could prepare works for the show while living on the G.I. bill.

In Mexico I was accepted as a member of the Taller de Grafica Popular because my woodcuts were considered to be in the realistic Mexican tradition. On the Day of the Dead at 2:00 AM on the island of Janitzio, I chanced to meet an old friend who currently worked for UNESCO.

Musicians

He told me UNESCO was looking for a foreign artist who could work in the Mexican realistic style. UNESCO offered me the job, which was in Patzcuaro and we moved there shortly after our daughter was born in Mexico City. I worked on projects directed toward literacy, such as designing educational panels and illustrating books to improve literacy. I enjoyed it. After a year the position was eliminated. We returned back to L.A. for the birth of our second child in 1954.

Literacy Fair

In 1960 I gave myself a grant and we went to Rome, Italy -- we sold everything and moved. I'd wanted to sculpt and the baroque environment of Italy lent itself to sculpture. Also, foundry costs there were comparatively inexpensive. I began sculpting and I did a lot of woodcuts. The second year there I started to paint again. I found that being an artist was a very prestigious position in Italy, which had been true in Mexico as well. Perhaps they thought I must be very successful to be able to live outside of the U.S. In any case, I was treated like an important person, unlike how it had been in the United States. In Italy, they would call me 'professor' and I would say, No, I'm a 'muratore' (a plasterer). I exhibited extensively in Italy and sold very well. It's the only time in my life that I've made a go of it financially as an artist. I was connected to a very important gallery there, Gallery Penelope, and I also showed in Milan.

Toscany

Three Graces

After four years we returned to Los Angeles; I got depressed because L.A. seemed so ugly. I had a painting or sculpture show in Los Angeles every year for seven consecutive years. Then my work started to take on different qualities. I began to work from models while striving for an image that reflected a characterization of the individuals who posed for me. These were very large paintings.

I taught at USC and private art schools (The School of Fine Art and The New School of Art). Teaching was difficult. I found that conscientious teaching requires participation in the students problems, at least in your own thoughts. I used to wake up at night thinking about some of my students work, and saying, ''Ah, there's a solution to their problem.'' When that occurred I stopped teaching. It seemed like I wasn't using my unconscious for myself.

In 1970 I changed vocation from teaching to the business of selling tribal art. Since that time I have devoted much of my life to tribal art while continuing to work on my own art.

Between 1975 and 1980 I had a series of shows in the L.A. area that were a combination of my sculpture, paintings, and woodcuts. Now I have painting shows around every four or five years. I was ill with a heart condition and found that I couldn't take the physical act of sculpting and so I painted. I work very slowly; by working practically full time I finish around 12 paintings a year.

My work of the past fifteen years has been mainly portraiture, acrylic on paper. I've worked using a collage-like method. I add paper to an existing painting and just start adding figures to the painting until I solve it as I would solve a small easel painting. The method allows me to keep the necessary freshness in the transparency of colors. I monkey around with the painting until I find an equilibrium.

Manny Geraldine

As a collector, my likes are eclectic. I like practically all the Eastern arts as well as contemporary American art. My collection essentially consists of African and Asian art; it's what I would call primal art, which I like better than any other kind. I've also collected Etruscan, Roman and Greek pieces in additional to some 11th-12th century Japanese material. I've become very fond of furniture that is created by craftsman hacking out one big piece of wood rather than assembling several small pieces. I admire both the skill and the energy required to finish these pieces of furniture.

As a collector, I can offer this advice: Buy the best that you can afford rather than to look for bargains. There's no point in accumulating lesser quality works.